the words of one seized by the power of a great affection.

ESPN

believe it or not the NBA has finally made it to the Conference Finals. it only took a month but they are finally here. in the west we have the L.A. Lakers versus the Denver Nuggets. And in the East we have the Cleveland Lebrons versus the Orlando Magic. I do not care about the West because my Mavericks are no longer alive. Thanks Eric Dampier.

Lets look at the east. The Cleveland Cavaliers have been forgettable so far this postseason because their series are over in four and won by more than 10 points each game. I would like to point out that both series took place between two teams that were garbage and completely overmatched. (Wonder if Dumars still likes dealing washed up Billups for Iverson) Lebron has devoured any opponent that attempts to slow him down. (Im debating capitalizing Lebron, He, Him, or any other reference made to Lebron because He has been divine so far) Doing what He did during the regular season but only better of distributing to shooters like West and Williams. Dishing off to Big Z and Verejao. and out rebounding everyone including Big Z. Lebron will play the Magic fresh off their 7 game series victory over that one team whom i hate as much as that team from San Antonio. The Magic offer the biggest challenge to the Lebrons making it to the Finals. It is easy to say that the Magic start with Dwight Howard but when i watch the Magic they go by Hedo Turkoglu. When the 6’10” small forward brings his intensity and energy to the arena, watch out. he can drive to the basket and dish it off to Superman (6’11”) for a mans dunk or kick it out to 6’10” Rashard Lewis for a three. This series is going to be epic in my opinion. The reason is because the Magic won the season series 2-1 against the Lebrons during the regular season including a blowout in Orlando in which the Magic were winning by 39 in the 3rd quarter. (ESPN carried that game and almost switched to Matthew Berry Fantasy Special but stayed out with their programming im sure of it) My take on the series is Magic win in 7. Their size and ability to disrupt Lebron will keep them close in every game and allow them to pull out the series and face…. the Lakers.

I would also like to take this moment and convince you to hate the team from Boston as much as i do. Consider this, Kevin Garnett is the scariest and ugliest man alive. They are the cockiest team ever and Paul Pierce seems to have forgotten that just 2 years ago he was the “captain” of one of the worst teams in recent memory.

i listen to a podcast by Bill Simmons weekly. Daily actually. recently he had an author by the name of Chuck Klosterman on his podcast and they discussed the death of the newspaper and what were the causes. Within this conversation Bill Simmons, the host, mentioned that fans are no longer as passionate as they used to be when he was growing up in the late 70s and 80s. i began to think as to whether or not i agreed with this statement and if so what were the causes.

My theory is this: fans are no longer as passionate about their teams as they were 20-25 years ago. i understand being that i am only 22 years of age i am at a disadvantage to judge 25 years ago. however, i must go by the events that i have seen on classic and events i have read or heard about to help in my judgement. so like i said fans today seem to be less passionate about every aspect of their specific team. whether its the spectacular one hand touchdown grab, alley hoop from half court, or the crucial sacrifice bunt that moved a runner into scoring position, fans have been trained to react.

this is where my cause for this lack of ultimate passion comes in. as i tried to say even though i rambled fans today are like puppets on a string. it takes the right play for them to show excitement. i have been to games where i could have sat in my sea the entire game and not felt out of place. and now for my theory……………………. drum roll please………… the cause for the lack of passion is ESPN. i understand that this is blasphemy. however, i believe it to be true and here is why. the instant highlight brings viewers the key plays of every major sporting event. i enjoy it. i am addicted to it. then there is the the top 10 plays of the night. these are all things that i look forward to and watch religously but they are the cause of the death of the true fan. never in my life hve i seen a sacrifice bunt in the top 10 plays of the night or the highlights for that specific game. you will never see a tim duncan 15′ bank shot as the top play after his team has won by 15. But you let Lebron dunk the ball and now you are in the top 5 plays of the night. even if his team loses that night. you let andruw jones hit a meaningless 3 run homer (when he was with the Braves) and that will be in the highlights of the game even though the Braves lost 11-4. My point is that fans have caught on to this. We now go to the game and look past the small yet significant plays and occurences of a game and cheer for the “sweetest dunk in the history of man”, or ” oh man he just got mossed”. i truly have no clue what this will accomplish. i just wanted to hear what other people have to think about fans and whether or not my theory is even close to being accurate or maybe im just reaching for something. let me know.